


Coats of Brown

by Jedireaper, ShawnMorgan



Category: Doctor Who, Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Firefly Setting, Multi, Multiple Doctors (Doctor Who), doctor who - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2018-08-27 16:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8408005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedireaper/pseuds/Jedireaper, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShawnMorgan/pseuds/ShawnMorgan
Summary: A terrible and merciless foe falls through a rip in the fabric of reality, an enemy the 'Verse was never prepared for: The Doctor's greatest enemies (at least he's their's anyway). The events that follow give Mal Reynolds and the crew of Serenity a major headache. This puts the 'Verse in desperate peril as it's denizens and the Alliance come face-to-face with an enemy they have little-to-no way to combat. A situation like this requires one man... or maybe two... And an Ace up their sleeves.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Jedireaper: This story was a labour of love (And then some) of two writers, crazy enough to turn a short into a n
> 
> ShawnMorgan : And I would like to thank/blame the author of 'The Magic of Torchwood' who said she was interested and wanted more. Sarah, I mean you.

**PROLOGUE**

 

_“A while’s into the future, in a not so alternate reality…”_

 

He had been alone now for a decade, not a state of affairs he relished. Sighing, he wondered about Ace’s progress in the academy of the Time Lords. His reverie was short lived as the door to the TARDIS opened from the outside and a tall man in a brown coat entered.

The Doctor closed his book, and placed it to the side on his pinewood coffee table, as he looked upon this tall man entering his TARDIS. The Doctor kept his relaxed posture in the armchair, studying the brash gentleman.

Neither of the two spoke for several seconds, they just studied each other intently, blue eyes locked. Finally the man in the brown trench coat spoke. “I’m looking for a fella’ to help me with some,” the man paused hesitantly, as if unsure of the pronunciation, “ _Dar-leks_.”

The Doctor’s eyes glinted. “Oh?” He leaned forward in his armchair, and perched his chin on his intertwined hands. “And what do you plan to do about them, hm?” He said, fixing his piercing stare on the newcomer.

“Me?” The tall man patted a vicious looking pistol at his side, flashing a grin only Han Solo could have bettered, “Well, I aim to misbehave.” Malcolm Reynolds said.


	2. Chapter 2

**ONE**

 

“Some few minutes after, the thirty two hours before…”

 

Mal was sat across from this _Doctor_ , and he hadn’t rightly known what to expect; especially considering the blue box had appeared in his cargo bay as River Tam, Simon’s sister, had predicted. That girl was still funny (in the head), crazy-like, no doubt there, but she’d never been wrong. Besides that, she’d always been honest with him.

And now here they were: This Doctor and him. Reality in solid form.

Mal just hoped that this visitor could help them. Right now the black needed all the help she could get.

Sitting in the dining area of the _Serenity_ with Zoey close at hand, keeping her eye on their foretold visitor, Mal reflected that It was good to have someone he duly trust.

The Doctor had been asking Mal questions that Mal honestly didn’t have all the answers for, and in some cases, were flat out no one’s business but their own. The Doctor though seemed to have the good sense to know which buttons not to press.

Mal leaned forward, having opted to have his foot on the stool rather than his rear, and motioned with his hands. “We were put onto a fine little earner and then some, due to being a little short, and we weren’t exactly followin’ all the rules.”

The Doctor smiled slightly, his brow furrowing as he sat back with his hands clasped behind his hat, noting Zoey tense slightly as he did so. He filed that piece of information away for later thinking: _These two are close._

He brought his hands back around rested his chin on them, arms on the table now. “And how stringently would you follow the rules when you’re not _caught short_ , captain?”

Mal raised an eyebrow and continued in his casual mannerisms. The Doctor however, was _very_ good at (selectively) reading people. And Mal had been taken aback by that statement; but the boy hid it well.

“I reckon that should always be rightly negotiable, within times, rimes and reason.” Mal said.

“And pay.” The Doctor said dryly.

“Well, usually.” Mal’s tone was equally as dry. “And I don’t see what business of yours our dealin’s are.” Mal spotted Jayne give him an uncomfortable stare, and pressed on.

The Doctor’s smile warmed. Mal reminded him of many of the rough edged, but ultimately decent individuals he’d encountered in his centuries of life.

“Anyway,” said Mal, “this story’ll take a while in tellin’.”

“Believe me captain, I have time.” The Doctor smiled wryly at his own cleverness. “Anyway,  continue.”

“As I was sayin’…”


	3. Chapter 3

Captain Malcolm Reynolds swished his coat aside and rested his hand on his service revolver, sighing as he looked upon the half destroyed computer system. It wasn’t that there was nothing to salvage from what he rightly considered to have been the bridge. It was more telling a fact that he had no thoughts on what kind of computer system this was. 

After all, the day had started out promising when they had stumbled upon this derelict and beaten up ship, a ways off the beaten track. Getting onboard seemed initially to take a bit of doing, as Wash couldn’t figure out where an airlock was. Having to cut through the hull took its time, but once inside what they had seen promised to ease their financial burden. 

Wash had brought them in close and locked initially, inspecting the hull of this vessel close up. It was like nothing they’d seen before, but Mal was used to that by now. There were plenty of folks out in the black that would be capable of building such a vessel. And even more of them capable of losing said vessel.

The Systems Alliance frequently lost vessels too. Though that was more to do with the constant Reaver threat and tactics. However while Mal was all for the System’s Alliance losing vessels, this surely wasn’t an Alliance ship. Especially not one the Reavers would leave in such a condition.

No bodies lay under the thin layer of recently disturbed dust throughout the corridors of this ship, nor were there any sign of activity beyond their own making. Meaning that whoever owned this ship was long driven to the black.

“Zoey, what do you make of it?” Mal asked turning to his long time partner and second in command of the Serenity. She was a slender woman, well built, with dark skin and jet black hair. She wore a similar style of outfit to Mal himself but not the same; mid-length beige-brown long coat, with a maroon leather top, and brown functional trousers in a tone Mal would have likened to damp sand.

She took in a breath, and gave him a skeptical look over her rebreather mask: A look that was Zoey all over. She didn’t trust it. That much Mal gleaned from the expression, beyond that, she spoke: “It’s not Alliance that much is sure, and I don’t recognise this language. Probably a custom job. And it’s old.”

Zoey pretty much said it out loud, what Mal had already thought, as she continued. “From the damage in here, I’d say someone had a little trouble.”

“System issues probably. Or had someone right nasty jump on board.”

There was a moment between the pair when they were almost thinking the same things in tandem, that was how well they knew each other. Mal spoke first. “We should get Kaylee in here, take a look at this mess. See if the gorram thing still works.”

“Taking her whole?”

“I wanna rightly know what we’re taking first.”

“Right,” she nodded, and lifted a radio from her pocket. “Oh dear husband of mine?”

*

The Stegosaurus hunched down readying to charge at its foe; a low growl appearing to emit from the scaly beast. Opposite the prehistoric creature was an Allosaurus equally preparing to leap in attack, it’s smooth spine in stark contrast to the finned back of the Stegosaurus.

There was a roar echoing out and the Stegosaurus charged thunderously towards the Allosaurus, as the Allosaurus leaped onto the side of the Stegosaurus, with the cry of an attack. The two giant prehistoric lizards toppled over, crashing into the altitude controls of the Serenity.

The ship jolted a tiny fraction, but remained locked to the hull of the vessel they were salvaging. 

Wash broke out of his reverie when his wife’s voice squawked through the com speaker. “Oh, dear husband of mine?”

Hoban Washburne brushed the toy dinosaurs aside and reached for the com switch. “Yes my darling wife?” He asked, casually attempting to sound confident.

There was a moment of brief silence before the voice of Zoey returned over the speaker. “You’ve been playing with them again, haven’t you.” Her voice carried an almost stern tone that he could either take seriously or not. Wash knew his wife, well mostly. Sometimes she did have a habit of surprising him on many an occasion.

Wash’s voice sounded almost strained in the lie. “No.” He said weakly.

There was another moment of silence and he could imagine his wife's expression right now. She knew him so gorram well. ”


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

 

Mal saw the Doctor’s eyes narrow at his mention of boarding the derelict. 

“Tell me your procedure for boarding the ships you find, captain.” The Doctor leaned on the question mark of his funny little umbrella, his eyes glinting. Mal know that kind of look. It had adorned the faces of many an Alliance officer that had hoped that he and his detained crew could contradict each other. He grinned.

“No other crew here, mister Doctor fella, so it aint as though they’ll be contradicting what I’m a’ sayin’.” As he spoke, Mal scanned his surroundings. It defied understanding, or at least his, but the verse was full of surprises and what was, was. There was no use complaining that something was impossible when you standing right in its epicentre 

The Doctor smiled and said. “Indeed. So the only person who you have to worry about is yourself. The only person you really care about, hmm.”

The smug tone stung Mall and he whirled and took a half step towards the short man, ready to grab this Doctor and haul him up by his shirt collar and growl in his face about just how wrong he was. He forced himself to stop and took a deep breath.

“I don’t care who you gorram well are, you make a crack about me not looking after or caring but anyone on this boat,’ and whilst I don’t rightly know how you got on board in this cocamanie box, I’ll move most mightily to throw you off it again.Doctor Man. ”Dohn luh mah?

“Yes, Captain, we do.” 

As soon as the words were said, Mal knew that he had been played and with a sour smile said, “Did I pass the test then?”

The Doctor stood up, leaned his umbrella against thin air, somehow and he smiled widely, “With passing colours, Captain. Now, please do continue.”

“Afore I do, does that Umbrella have yours have some gadget in it that allows you to make it do that?”

“A good question captain but did you consider that I may simply be skilled enough to balance it that way?”

“I asked what I thought was more likely.”

“And not about the impossible.”

“I never said i thought it was impossible and I’d be grateful if’n you’d stop tryin’ to trip me with weasel words. It ain’t polite, and it ain’t as clever as you seem to think it is.”

The Doctor, far from being affronted, continued smiling, giving Mal the impression that Mal was continuing to react how the strange little man wanted him too. 

“Right said Mal, back to me talking and you listening.” Mal put his hands on his waist and waited in case the Doctor had anything else to say. When the Doctor stayed quiet Mal didn’t know whether to be relieved, suspicious, or suspicious about feeling relieved. He took a breath and continued and continued his tale.

* * *

 

The derelict ship had looked to Mal like someone had stuck two water turbines to the side of a submersible. He felt a pang of concern as he boarded. He’d been partially relieved when no lifesigns had been detected. That was in part because he didn’t have any unexpected parties to run into, and partially because he always ended up trying to save people.

Sure, there’d been a few incidents with people too gorram dumb to live where he;’d been forced to change his mind in order to protect himself and his crew, but mal had no illusions about being a good man. But that wouldn’t stop him being the best he could reasonably be in the ‘verse.

As he made his way through this massive ship, mal felt increasingly uneasy. There was nothing here that identified it as browncoat tech, nor did it have anything that marked it as Alliance. He briefly considered the possibility of yet another Alliance secret weapon project.

He dismissed those thoughts as he investigated the scorch marks, his instincts telling him that something bigger than either the unification war or the Miranda controversy was unfolding around him. He spoke slowly into his respirator to Zoey. “Sergeant, You feeling spooked by this in any way at all?”

Zoey’s answer reassured him as she said, “ I am sir, glad to know it aint just me. I’ll glad to get off this boat.”

“Me too sergeant. Now, that said, have you found anything worth thaulong back?” He clicked off and waited for her to reply. After several seconds of silence he tried again. “Zoey?”

“I think you need to come and see this for yourself, sir.”

*

He hauled himself into the large open chamber that Zoey stood in slightly to the side of the entrance. She nodded at him and gestured at what was strung throughout the wreckage. Several bodies were caught in the wreckage prevented from drifting out into space.

What had caught first Zoey’s and now Mal’s attention were the inhuman proportions of what appeared to their seasoned eyes, to be crew. Their heads were domed and hairless, the eyescokets sunk deep in, the vacuum of space preventing their decay. The suits they wore were like nothing the two browncoats had ever seen.

“Sergeant, whatever this is, it’s beyond us. I think we oughta to be fixin to haul our asses back over to our own boat.”

“Yes sir, I’m in almost full agreement.”

“Care to expand on that?”

“We take a spare suit and at least some of these guns they’re got.”

“I can be seeing why there might a use for all that. Okay, rig it up and get her movin’ and make sure Jayne gets his ass in gear. Hell, tell him we found mighty guns, that should do it.”

“I’ll send the small stuff over first.we might be able to figure out first, then send the guns. It’ll keep him shifting. Then I’ll rig up some explosives around what’s left.”

“Why are we doing that again, sergeant?”

“Two reasons sir. First, do we really want the Alliance getting their hands on this ship and its cargo, and two, would we want any of the fringe world leaders getting their hands on it?”

“So the only assholes allowed to have it are us?”

“Sir.”

“Was that a yes sir, or a no sir, Sergeant.”

“It was a sir, sir.”

 

*

Their oxygen was running down and the two spacers looked at each other, tapping their meters. Both nodded, the silent communication honed through years of practise and they began levering out the container.

It was lodged tight and they briefly considered leaving it. But at the als second it came sliding away. The problem with that though, was that it caught a wall panel that even damaged lit up. A circle of red lights flashing on and off.

Mal and Zoey watched it for a few seconds and their eyes widened as they realised that each flashing sequence had fewer characters. Their eyes snapped back to looking at each other and they could tell that each knew what this was now. 

They shoved the container out of their way and pushed hard for the airlock, air expenditure be damned. Only once he had the extraction cable attached and Zoey also had hers, did Mal flick on his coms again, this time hailing Wash.

“Power up the engines, big ship gonna go boom! Don’t really want to be here when that goes down.”

“And lock the cockpit door so Jayne can’t force you to leave without us aboard!”

“I heard that, you Gorram asshole!” came the irritated voice of Jayne Cobb.

“Good!” retorted zoey, ”Then you damned well know that you need to shift your ass reelin’ us in!”

 

*

With Jayne heeding her words, Mal and Zoey were back on board in good time. The airlock clanged shut behind them, severing the tow cable to that last fateful storage container. Sending it to drift in the black. 

Zoey punched the internal comms system, “Wash, now!” 

As the engines whirred to full power, courtesy of their little miracle worker, one Kaywinnet Lee Frye, Mal took a deep breath of relief. He took another one a few seconds later when the blossoming star nearby that used to be a ship failed to take him with it.

 

***

 

Captain Vincent turned as the dashboard nearby started flashing its proximity alert. He smiled at the term considering that the new Flagship of the Alliance could detect activity on Persephone on when it was still orbiting Londinium. 

His expression froze as his helmsman aid, “It’s the Serenity, sir. We’re detecting her shadow alongside a larger ship.”

“Size and classification, Helmsman, as you well know.”

“I understand sir, but the larger vessel isn’t matching anything we have on file and is of comparable size to a frigate. Shape and design is unknown too. I’m reviewing all findings as we go sir, and I’ve locked prepared a course.”

Captain Vincent smiled. The flagship Unity was about to try out the new foldspace engines and looked very much like catching the infamous insurrectionist, Malcolm Reynolds on the same day. That little man didn’t seem to grasp that the unification war had finished. So, since he seemed intent on running massive smear campaigns, the Alliance.

“Spin the engines, three quarter power, we’ll be there before they can scurry off.

 

* * *

Drifting along, her systems undergoing repair, the saucer shaped battleship with its murderous crew came to a halt. The one responsible for scanning this unknown galaxy double checked its scans before reporting its find. It found the shipit had been a part of destroying: A sontaran vessel. 

LONG RANGE SCANS DETECT SONTARAN SELF DESTRUCT. THIS WILL BE INVESTIGATED. ALTER COURSE.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

 

Mal was aboard the Serenity and breathing hard. He was grateful to the ‘Verse that he hadn’t been forcibly merged with it, but was wondering why the engines and their positions was less than shiny. He’d given the order, so they should be well on their way once he was back aboard.

“Kaylee, I don’t seem to be hearing the engines goin’ and we don’t seem to be somewhere I’m wanting to be, which ain’t here.

The answer was a long way from what he wanted to hear as kayle replied. “Sorry about that, captain, but we got tossed about. The engines got us clear but we aint making any hops anytime soon. There’s are pieces of engine where they ain’t supposed to be. Namely, on the engine room floor. Goin’ to take a while at least two hours to get her goin’ again.”

“How about I give you one hour and if you don’t make the time, I drop of you off to look for a new job next berth we call at?”

“How about you not being so ornery and listening to the girl that keeps your boat afloat and not asking what’s not possible of her?”

“You’re getting a mite ornery down there, Little lady.”

“I’ve been around you a good while now, captain. It’s catchin’. Just you ask Zoey if you don’t believe me.” 

Mal was about to reply to that claim when Zoey laid one hand gently on his forearm and smiled whilst nodding ever so slightly. Mal sagged but then spoke into the coms again. “Fine,” he said, a hint of exasperation in his voice. It seemed that everyone on his boat wanted to challenge him in some way, except for Wash. “fix her up best you can.”

“Always, Mal.”

When no one could see him, he let a little smile creep onto his lips. She may have been back talking him, but he was proud of Kaylee for having the Chutzpah to do so. 

The smiled dropped from his lips as there was drop across all ship systems and stealth mode was engaged. Looking across at Zoey, he could see her hand was at her waist, resting on her pistol, mirroring his own actions. 

He made his way to the cockpit where and slid into Co pilot’s station,not uttering a word. He knew that Horace Wash Washburn would have a good explanation waiting. And as Mal looked into the black, the mile long Alliance Dreadnought ‘Unity' definitely qualified as a good reason. 

* * *

 

“Well?” asked Vincent. Sharply. “You claimed to have them on scan, so where are they?”

“They’re using the debris as cover. Something about that other ship’s debris is confusing our scans. I’m already cross referencing the scans-. Sir, I’m picking up a new ship. It doesn’t match any known class, either.

“Hail them and order them to prepare for boarding and inspection.”

“Aye sir. “Unidentified vessel, you are interfering with a government investigation, You will stand down and - sir! I’m reading an energy spike!”

“Fire at will. This is the last mistake these dumbass brown coats will ever make!”

The Unity fired, her power grid flaring as enough power to level a large city sped towards the newcomer. The Alliance crew cheered as the ship glowed. Those cheer faded when the glow dissipated leaving a ship whose only evidence of being engaged were plasma marks across her hull. 

Then the enemy ship hailed the Unity, taking over her communication systems effortlessly, repeating the same word over and over even as squat metal war machines appeared on the Unity itself, the space between their ships no barrier to them, screeching the same word repeatdly.. “EX-TER-MIN-ATE!”

 

* * *

 

Mal watched,a sick feeling in his gut. He knew that the Unity had come looking for him, maybe to take into custody, maybe to consign him and his crew to the void, But as he heard the cries of the Alliance crew, giving their surrender, only to hear that merciless repetition.

He gritted his teeth, willing to help them, knowing that there was nothing that he could do except bear witness or get all those under his care, destroyed. He said a prayer for their souls, hoping this once that he might just be wrong and the Shepard might be right, even as much as Mal himself thought different. 

 

* * *

 

The Unity was a blazing mess, the crew dead or injured, those that were left fought to avenge their dead comrades, knowing their own fates were sealed. But for each Dalek they killed, they lost over twenty of their own. 

Captain VIncent Andrews hailed the ship again, shouting his surrender into the Comms. “In the name of he verse, we surrender! We are your prisoners!”

He was answered hen a holographic projection of a large red Dalek, wired to a command post, appeared, stating impassionately, “THE DALEKS DO NOT REQUIRE PRISONERS. YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-AT=ED. Then the image vanished. 

Vincent slammed his hand on a the control panel, shouting, “All hands abandon ship! All hands abandon ship! Everyone for themself!”

The order given, he began making his way to the closest escape pod,stopping when he saw that the way to it was cut off by blazing wreckage, glowing molten with the heat. This was it then, his first voyage with this proud ship was going to be his last

He that least some of his crew would be saved by the same renegade they had searched for. The small capsule shot out into space, taking their occupants in many directions, supposedly to salvation. 

That salvation never came as creatures considered damned beyond mere sending to hell casually targeted each capsule and before firing spoke one word.

Withe the bridge ablaze and the final defence falling he turned from watching the door glow as the Daleks began cutting through the reinforced blast doors. He knew now that all their fates were sealed and he worked feverishly to carry out afinal duty to humanity itself.

“This is captain Andrew Vincent of the Alliance vessel Unity, To any gorram captain with a soul, heed these words: We were killed by monsters and the verse needs to be warned. Our best ship couldn’t match them. Stopping them will take a ot, maybe your all. Looking at them, you stare into the void itself, I don’t care about the colour of your coat now: stop them, captain, or find those that can. Activating the Unity’s self destruct. I hope I can take some of these ‘Darlecks’ with me.”

*

Mal heard and swallowed hard. He turned to face Wash, as he growled out new orders. “Lay in a course for Londinium. Get ready to ride the blastwave and hug the debris.” Jabbing the button that would patch him through to kayee, he stumbled as small and familiar bundle of trouble shoved him out or her way. 

Mal caught his balance and was about to speak but River Tam’s hands were already flying over the dashboard. One glance at Wash flailing at the controls he’d just been locked out of, spoke volumes. The pilot was enough to tell him that their little albatross had taken total control. That was concerning in its own right, but the way she was muttering to herself repeatedly was worrying,

 

As the UNITY disintegrated and Mal’s hopes the explosion would take the attackers with it were dashed by a pin on sensors, he fa nearly feverish muttering. Leaning in carefully, he asked, 

“What are you saying there, Xiao Meimei?

“We need the Doctor.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Many years ago, right now in the future that was

A man lay on the ground, curled up in pain. standing over him was a girl in a leather jacket adorned with badges.

“Bog off toerag and don’t come around here again!” With that, the teenager called ‘Ace’ kicked the would be mugger in the side. In truth, this was merely for emphasis since the offending thug was already curled up in a ball whimpering.

The attack had drawn a crowd as soon as Ace had shouted in outrage, having been grabbed by a tall, burly, pale skinned attacker. The result had been for her to twist quickly left and down, spin and launch a fist at the traditional vulnerable spot. 

She was neither tall nor muscly but she’d been running, jumping and climbing for a few years now. This meant that her power to weight ratio was quite a bit above the usual for her build. She’d used her experiences by following up her primary attack by rolling back to her feet and booting him in exactly the same place. Behind her she thought she heard a police siren,

There was the sound of a car pulling up and doors opening and closing, and an authoritative voice sounded. “Alright, what’s all this about? The tall black police officer that exited took in the sight in front of him and raised an eyebrow when he spotted a familiar face. 

Eyeing local trouble magnet Dorothy MacShane sternly he said, “Is this your doing? Because if it is…”

Ace blinked, registering that not only had the police turned up, but the one speaking was the one that had arrested her for burning down Gabriel Chase house. The tone of his voice and his soured expression clearly indicated that he would have no problem arresting her. This time she had a great excuse; she wasn’t guilty.

“He started it," said Ace, gaining herself a sceptical look as she parked herself on a bench, on leg over the other,a can of coke in one hand and a Marathon bar in the other adding, “Ask anyone that saw it.”

PC Nathan White was about to say something about that being unusual when the sun glinting off something metallic, caught his attention. He gestured to his partner whilst motioning the recalcitrant young woman to step back. To Ace he said, ‘WPC Black will take your statement, miss McShane.”

“It’s ‘Ace’.”

Officer Black paused and sighed. “You know that I’m required to call you by the same name that goes in my reports. It’s not as we haven’t both done this before.” 

His tone was firm but not impolite. Then a thought struck him and whilst the young woman sitting cross legged on a bench was a bit of a handful, she wasn’t actually malevolent. He gave her a polite smile as he asked, "Have you ever considered deed polling your name?”

“Huh, never thought of that, ta, ...officer...” She gave him a respectful nod and just sat there peaceably, making PC White wonder if this wasn’t some doppelganger. Still needing to process the suspect, he beckoned over his female colleague then walked over to the still groaning man. 

Ace smiled, knowing that her former arresting officer was a decent sort even if he could be a bit hidebound.

As the WPC (Woman Police Officer) came over, Nathan White went and double checked his growing suspicion, swiftly having it confirmed He slid the vicious bladed weapon away from the thug, with a low growl. Carefully, he brought out a plastic evidence bag and placed the flick-knife away before coldly and professionally handcuffing his suspect. 

“He was armed.” It was all he needed to say. There was some low murmuring amongst the gathering crowd, with those who had actually witnessed the assault confirming the man’s guilt.

Ace made a few supportive noises to them even as she asked her old acquaintance, "So you believe me now then?”

“No doubts who’s going down today after finding his weapon. He gave her an amused smile before adding ‘You did good here, ‘Ace’.”

“Thanks, guv’nor” Ace said, smiling warmly, able to relax now that she knew that her version of events would be taken seriously. That still left her with a few questions, one of which was not exactly important. 

She decided to get that one out of the way. She switched her attention to the WPC that had been tasked with recording her statement, “So he’s officer White and you’re officer Black?”

“Yes.” She responded, waiting for what seemed like the inevitable comment.

Ace smiled amicably, tactfully ignoring the mammoth in the antechamber. She elected instead to address the second item on her list. “How’d you manage to get here so flaming fast?” After a second’s pause she added. “Thanks too, of course.”

“Oh that would be my doing.” The claim came from an impressively dressed and well built woman who made the growing think of the sort of women that followed Olivia Newton John exercise video regimes. 

The woman saw the scrutiny and smiled warmly... “I saw this utter toerag a few streets back and I know i’ve clocked a total tosser when I see one.” She explained.

“I’ll be sure to mark down that you said you ‘know a reprobate’ when you see one’, replied officer White. The policeman looked straight at her, frowning... the weirdly dressed, stranger newcomer strongly reminded him of someone but he couldn’t quite place it. 

The woman didn’t miss the scrutiny and briefly recalled running into DCI White later on in his career. “I know the procedure office. My name is Dorothy Lambert. I was on my way to talk to Mr Pattelli on Churchill Street, about starting a charitable organisation for wayward adolescents-” 

She stopped as she was briefly interrupted by a leather jacket wearing teenager’s exaggerated innocent whistling. It served to make her smile even as she flashed the brassy teenager a wry smile and then said, “What you did here was brill.”

Ace continued to smile even as her younger self who looked back grinning and said "Wotcha. And ta for the help.”

* * *

Ace left the Asquith street police station in good spirits after giving her statement. She had found it a little weird to be driven there with no handcuffs on. 

PC White turned out to be as sound as a pound too, as demonstrated when he’d shoved the vicious would be mugger into custody. The man had complained, trying to claim excessive force but he had no allies here. 

As Ace walked back home, she rounded the corner to find the incredibly fit (in both senses of the word) woman waiting for her, although she was now dressed in jeans and shirt. Realising that she’d even briefly eyed her up, Ace flushed as she wondered about the unusually strong feelings she’d had for Kara the Cheetah girl. Mybe it meant she needed to listen to AC/DC now.

The older woman let out an exasperated breath. “Right, there you are. God, you’re a hard person to track down.”

“What?” Ace blinked, looking this woman up and down. “What?”

“And I should know,” the older woman muttered, looking to the side for a moment. “And still in a pain in the arse for the fuzz, even when on the same side. Mind you, that hasn’t changed all that much.”

“What the smeg ae you warbling on about, you weirdo?” Ace went to take a step back, “Who are you?”

Before Ace could react properly, the older woman had grabbed her wrist and slapped a black bracelet or band over it. Ace struggled and quickly broke free: inspecting her arm.

“What the bloody ‘ell do you think you’re doing?!” Ace was frantically inspecting the wrist band, scrabbling at it. “And what the fuck have you put on my wrist?”

The older woman smiled an almost predatory smile. “You’ve got to get back…”

“Back bloody where?!” Ace asked as she tried pressing the catch on the bracelet band thing to get it off her arm. In that moment her whole body tingled, and was surrounded by a shimmer of blue energy. 

“You’ll see.” Said the lady opposite. 

Ace, a look of gaunt surprise on her face, vanished.


End file.
